Enter the Vortex

This mind-bending staircase is actually two staircases that don't connect anywhere, but the bottom from where I took this photo. It's absolutely stunning, and yet I think the early morning cooks who passed me in the stairwell thought nothing of it. Amazing how we can become immune to the beauty around us. I've always loved that about photography, it makes you stop and pause to appreciate life's little details. Apparently these stairs had a purpose back when George Munsing was using this building a hundred years ago to make his revolutionary "itchless" underwear. George was a successful guy, in fact the underwear king of the universe at the time. Well, rumor has it that making underwear all day in the world's busiest factory can make some people testy. So George decided it was better not to spoil the mood of workers arriving for their shift by having them pass by the grouchy ones heading home.